If you want to be notified the next time I write something, sign up for FREE email alerts or subscribe to the RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!It’s time of the year for Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2007. With all my reservations regarding Reporters Without Borders neutrality (having doubt after knowing that France is their financial [...]

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I admit I have missed the news when it was announced end of last July, but better late than never.
Honored to be Bahraini by soul for living in Bahrain for the last four years, I am very happy to know that Wafaa Ganahi, a 23-year-old teacher from the Law Faculty of Bahrain University, won the [...]

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In the fifth annual Reporters Without Borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index, in between 168 indexed countries, our beloved Arab countries makes sure to be among the worst.
Here is the list in order from “best” to “worst“:
Kuwait - 73
United Arab Emirates - 77
Mauritania - 77
Qatar - 80
Morocco - 97
Lebanon - 107
Jordan - 109
Bahrain - 111
Algeria - [...]

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Tunisian Treasure Prison Map
The first project is the brave, superb Tunisian Prison Map by Sami Ben Gharbia.
Sami made a Tunisian Prison Map, which is madeup using a Google Maps API + GMapEZ + video YouTube + flash animations + the Yahoo Y !Q Beta. [Hat tip: Rachel]
Link to the map: http://www.kitab.nl/tunisianprisonersmap
Link to the related article [...]

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My friend Neila has got some good news (for change) from Tunisia. She just sent me this email:
Censored since the WSIS on November 2005, the website of the Mediterranean Liberal Party has become accessible in Tunisia on April 8th, 2006. My personal Blog is also accessible after two years of censorship. We consider this act [...]

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وزير الشؤون الدينية التونسي: حجاب المرأة دخيل ونشاز و”لباس طائفي”. اعتبر وزير الشؤون الدينية التونسي المرأة التي ترتدي الحجاب بأنها “نشاز”، بحسبانه مظهرا “غير مألوف” إلى جانب أنه “زي طائفي”. وقال الوزير أبو بكر الأخزوري في حوار أجرته صحيفة “الصباح” التونسية الثلاثاء 27-12-2005 في رد على سؤال حول العودة النسبية لظاهرة الحجاب في تونس، إن [...]

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The United States has tied with Myanmar (the former Burma) for sixth place among countries that are holding the most journalists behind bars, according to a new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Each country is jailing five journalists. The United States is holding four Iraqi journalists in detention centers in Iraq and one [...]

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Submitted By: amichel
Rebecca MacKinnon and Ethan Zuckerman hosted "Expression Under Repression," a workshop at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis (for more on that, please check out these blog posts).  Rebecca and Ethan are co-founders of Global Voices, a blog that features citizen journalists from around the world.  They also maintain a [...]

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Human Rights Watch released its long-awaited report on Online Censorship in the Middle East and North Africa. This report examines Internet trends and policies in the Middle East and North Africa region as they affect freedom of expression, focusing particularly on Egypt, Iran, Syria, and Tunisia. Human Rights Watch selected these four countries for closer [...]

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Dispatch from Tunis: The Civil Society Summit That Wasn�t Today as a global summit on the Internet got underway, the Tunisian government did all it could to smother a local summit on the same topic. One might think that a world conference on improving global Internet access represents a prime chance for the government to [...]

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Neila Charchour Hachicha writes that the PLM�s web site, which was the unique political website accessible in Tunisia has been censored today.
“However we want you to get the declaration of the 7 political personnalities who undertook today October 18th 2005 an unllimited hunger strike. We need the help of all friends to spread the message [...]

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Here is the link to the transcript (Arabic) of Arab TV Al Jazeera program about www.yezzi.org. The title of the program was “What’s behind this news: Tunisians are protesting on the Net” and the subject was: “Can a virtual action on the Net have an impact on the real political life?” (and there is also [...]

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Via: Global Voices Online
Rebecca MacKinnon

As Tunisia prepares to host the controversial World Summit on the Information Society in November, Tunisian opposition activist Neila Charchour Hachicha informs Global Voices that the online freedom of speech protest site launched by Tunisians on Monday, www.yezzi.org has already been blocked by the Tunisian authorities.
The online protest, called “Freedom of [...]

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A Tunisian passenger plane carrying 39 people crash-landed in the Mediterranean Sea today while trying to make an emergency landing in Sicily because of engine trouble, and 19 people were killed, while 20 people survived and were being taken off rescue boats.
Officials ruled out terrorism act and said that the plane had engine problems and [...]

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Last week, Guardian-organised event at which more than 100 young British Muslims were brought together at University College London. The delegates came from all walks of life, and held a wide range of views.
The one thing that came across very clearly was that the media are often wrong to refer to “the Muslim community”, when [...]

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